"You require 10 billion euros' worth of measures"

The Troika technical team visiting Greece has discovered a complete derailment of the Hellenic fiscal policy, in lieu of the upcoming final evaluation in view of the payment of the loan’s fifth installment.

Through the communication between the Troika team, the Treasury and ministry officials, it is evident that the deficit reduction from 24 billion to 17 billion is completely unattainable, due to the recession which seems to affect the efficiency of tax collection duties, but mainly due to the huge delays of tax administration and general fiscal policies, the single salary scale for public employees, the consolidation of public utilities and the wellness of underfunded social insurance organizations.

The Troika members estimate that in order to reach the target deficit of 7.4%, an extra 10 billion euros would have to be found through emergency measures. This is a far cry from the previously announced 3.5 billion which the Finance Ministry had decided on acquiring through cutting benefits and tax exemptions.

The assessment of the Troika team estimates that deficit will edge towards 10%, with possibilities of “locking” at 9.5%. Thus, we are dealing with a deviation of 4.5 billion in relation to the government’s goal.

The auditors themselves even seem to think that the attainment of this goal would not be advisable, considering that such measures would aggravate the recession more than normal.

The economic team is still trying to convince the auditors oφ the feasibility of such a move, but the breakdown of the Medium Term Plan has been postponed for a week.

Please note that the Prime Minister held an emergency meeting on the Medium Term Plan just yesterday…